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Portable Charcoal-fed Firebrick Oven

January 5, 2014 - 7:52pm

pantone_000

Portable Charcoal-fed Firebrick Oven

Hi everyone.

Here in the Philippines, there is a company known for manufacturing firebricks and firebrick ovens as well. The inventor made it as a solution for the high cost of LPG-run stoves and gas ovens. They can also be used for smoking meat, one just has to cut the wood to fit in the pull-out charcoal box.

I am planning to get one as my very first oven, the standard for home bakers (the one in the image immediately below) which measures 15x15x14in on the exterior, 12x12x10in interior. It costs less than $400 (converted from our currency), almost the same as getting a La Germania or Elba LPG-fed oven. This company supplies and customizes for almost all of the restaurants of famous chefs here in our country. I can't wait till my order arrives. :)

They can ship to provinces far from the country's capital, so I guess they can ship abroad too, if anyone of you would be interested. Here's their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JyFirebricks. I am not in any way related to them, just a fan of their firebrick ovens. :)

I definitely will! In the mean time I am reading from Peter Reinhart's books and infos here in this forum site as well. I'd like to learn Western bread because I see a small following of your types of bread here. There is a slow growth of foreigners who choose to retire in here, and expats too, because of the warm weather and good people, but they seem to be missing the food they grew up with. I grew up with Asian bread, too, that is why I want to learn its Western counterpart. Wish me luck!

I have sent a text message to the inventor/engineer himself and is waiting for his response, I will post it here for you when he does. I met the inventor personally last Sunday for a live demo of his brick ovens.

I love the fact that it is portable and I can bring it with me when I have found a place of my own (im still living with at parents' house). But then if I think about it, I would definitely miss making sticky cinnamon rolls and pizzas for my parents and siblings. :)

If you browse through their facebook page, they have other standard sizes for bakeries and for restaurants (every unit includes a heavy-duty thermometer and is self-cleaning at 600-700deg C). But you definitely can have yours customized. I only got the smallest model for home bakers because its what my budget can get right now. The model posted above can fit 3 12inch pizzas in one time, can roast 6 chickens, or 2-3 batches of cinnamon rolls depending on the height. And I believe a pig's head can fit in there. Hahaha.

ChanTM,The temperature control is also my major question since it is not like the conventional ovens wherein you set the temp and it stops there (thermostat function). This firebrick oven is tricky even if it has a heavy-duty thermometer. But I guess much easier than traditional earthen ovens with no temp reader at all. The inventor made the demo and it seemed easy, but I will have to wait till it's my turn to do so. With this one, he said preheat time is really roughly an hour for a recipe that calls for 300-350F. The tricky thing is monitoring the temp reading if it is already stable. His advise was putting additional coals every 30 minutes just to stabilize the temp. If a recipe calls to decrease the temp after a number of minutes, just decrease the live coals and close the air vent.One thing very good though is the temp does not come down even if you open the brick door for a couple of minutes (maybe to turn a loaf or switch racks). It is because they use heat-insulating bricks which they too are the ones who manufacture the bricks. Denatured alcohol costs very cheap here too, less than a dollar for a bottle. The coals have to be broken down into smaller pieces (before soaking them) so it can go into small gaps between large pieces of coals. Then, just one strike of a match and your brick oven is all lit up. And it really is smokeless, all I have to do then is prepare whatever I have to. I can't wait. ;)

I have received a response and it isjyfirebricks@yahoo.comHave you sirs tried adding a .com after jyfirebricks? That was the same response I got. No alternate email. I will ask again if he can check his inbox.Just a tip here that I am just a fan and a soon-to-be owner of one of his products, and is not in any way related to his company nor doing this (a rather shameless) plug for their company's purpose. I am just too excited with the fact that I can learn bread-making without worrying too much on the gas or electric consumption (charcoal costs very cheap here and will hopefully help our local charcoal makers). And focus on getting good quality ingredients instead. :)

The inventor said that if you plan to place it outside of your home or you do everyday baking, they put a chimney. But it can also be placed inside of your kitchen/home since the bricks do not get hot outside (only the steel brackets do get hot) without the chimney. He also noted that it cannot get wet by rain so better have a roof over it if to be placed outside.

Pantone, the oven looks fantastic... I wish I had room for an outdoor oven. I wanted to caution you about indoor use, regarding carbon monoxide. If you are burning charcoal to heat the oven, you need a way to properly vent the exhaust, otherwise you will possibly begin to notice headaches, then nausea and vomiting, then possibly worse from carbon monoxide. If you are outside, or you have good ventilation inside, there should not be a problem. Does the base for your fuel fit flush to the bottom of the oven? Even if it does, the carbon monoxide has to go somewhere. If there is no chimney, presumably it will be in the oven chamber, and come out when you open the door. Just be careful!

Thanks pongze. Inventor says it will definitely come with a chimney. And the charcoal pull-out box has adjustable air vents on the left and right. Thanks again! I can't wait to make boules and batards out of this. I still can't just make the purchase now because of a busy weekday work. I've been baking on weekends on a turbo convection oven so prolonging this will definitely cost me a lot just for the electricity alone.

It's finally here! I got it for myself for my birthday. So far so good, I make an average of 3 dishes (either breads or slow cooked meat) for around a dollar's worth of plain ol' charcoal. I've got one problem though, I haven't tried cranking it up higher than 200C, by that time all the charcoal has burned out. The next time I will bake, I will try using briquettes of better yet, firewood, if I can source out some around here.

Is that a customized brick oven? I noticed that the charcoal box is closer to the food.

Mine as you can see has a stone flooring that's why pre-heating i suppose takes longer than yours. I think mine needs really nearly an hour to get up to 175C, and then feed it with fresh charcoal every 30min to maintain the heat. Next time I bake, will try if I can remove the bottom stone flooring for faster pre-heating of the brick walls (and hopefully return them back into place without destroying the whole thing. Hahaha.

By the way, you said lechon. Are you a Pinoy? :)

Pork Belly Roast is up next on my list too. And hopefully have the guts to try roasting a whole hog's head! :D

My oven doesn't have a stone flooring (I think it's gone hehehe) so pre-heating is aroung 30 minutes (i always use electric fan to heat it up very fast hehehehe. I feed it every 40-45 minuter to maintain the heat. I hope I have a bottom stone flooring to see what's the difference without the stone flooring :).Hahaha [nose bleed ako]

Indeed, sir Jerry's brick ovens are the best! Although my bestest wishlist was a brand new one, but unfortunately I have to settle for a secondhand for now (see the soot everywhere, but don't worry, it doesn't touch the food).

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